More donuts!

This is coming a few days later than I had intended, but still coming.

My lovely little balls of dough were actually my second attempt at making donuts, even though they were my first for frying. My first attempt came from a recipe for baked donuts that I begged and borrowed off of Mary.

Seriously folks, everyone should have a Mary in their life! What an amazing woman, so patient and helpful and generous! I can't even count how many times I have run off an email to her in panic and had her calm "voice" coming back to me, making things better again. The time and effort she has put into helping me discover a part of baking I didn't know I liked until I did it, bread baking, is HUGE! I love her, she's great, and yes, I mean it, everyone should have a Mary in their life!

Now, back to donuts....


They look like donuts, don't they? Kid friendly, full of candy, kind of donuts? I assume they tasted like donuts too, since my kids pounced on and inhaled them quickly enough, and I don't think there was so much chocolate and sprinkles on them that anything would have tasted good. Personally, I passed at eating them though. They didn't "feel" right to me as a donut. Okay, and I'm not a huge donut fan to begin with. I like apple fritters and plain cake donuts, beyond that, I'll usually pass. Which isn't a bad thing, and not something I feel a need to change.

However, after making and dipping a dozen of these, I felt that there were sufficient donuts there for the kids and I needed to do something more grown up with the rest of the dough.

This is what I came out with... Cinnamon Twists.


Instead of cutting out circles of the dough, I simply made some strips instead, and dipped them in a mixture of cinnamon, sugar and nutmeg before twisting them onto the cookie sheet. Simple and homey, the kids ignored them. I, on the other hand, ate two while they were still a little too warm. Not these two, but some much smaller ones. Honestly! I really did eat the two little small ones and not the biggest ones from the batch! Do you think you could have resisted, with the smell of yeast, cinnamon, sugar and nutmeg surrounding you? No? I didn't think so!

The dough for these came together very quickly and with no problems. And while baking donuts seems a bit like cheating, so far I haven't dared to see what these would taste like deep fried. OMG, I can actually imagine it and think I better go find something distracting to do quickly!

Before I get on to the recipe, big Congrats need to be said to Meeta and the entire crew over at Daily Tiffin for their second anniversary, as well as to Meeta herself for the second anniversary of What's for Lunch Honey! Two great years of wonderful food, helpful advice and beautiful pictures! (It was Meeta who helped me make my own page a bit more me, for which I am extra thankful for!)

I hope Mary doesn't mind that I post the recipe here. I credit it to her, but have no idea where she got it from, or if she made it up herself. That would not surprise me, but then I think Mary could probably make anything from yeast, water and flour, and am a bit prejudiced.

Baked Donuts

1/3 c. scalded milk
3 tbsp. sugar
3 tbsp. shortening
1/4 tsp. salt
1 pkg. yeast
1/3 c. warm water
1 egg
2 1/3 c. flour
1 tsp. lemon flavoring
1/4 tsp. nutmeg

Stir sugar, shortening, and salt into hot milk. Dissolve yeast in warm
water. Beat the egg and add. Stir in the flavoring. Add the milk mixture
alternately with the flour and nutmeg. Cover the bowl and let rise until
double in size. Place on board or pastry cloth and roll until about 1/3
of inch thick. Cut with donut cutter. Place on greased cookie sheet,
then brush with melted butter. Bake about 15 minutes in a 375 degree oven.

** Note ** I do not have donut cutters, but do own a nice round cookie cutter, as well as a little, round cutter, which worked well together to simulate a proper cookie cutter. Oh, and I don't have lemon flavoring either, but did have lemons and lemon juice.